Things I will miss 語学留学を終えて

I'm at a hotel in Marseille now and I'm seriously in a mix of emotions now. It has truly been a long 6 weeks and I'm exhausted. I can't wait to go back to Geneva and back to "normal" school life. But I know I will be missing so much of life in Montpellier at the same time.

I do have to give a special thanks to my host mother. She has been so patient and so understanding about my struggles of speaking French. I initially wanted to do this program not so much because I wanted to learn French but to be more confident in using the language I have enough grammar and vocabulary but to put those into thoughts and words has been a big issue for me. And she has done so much so I can overcome those fears. First of all, no English was allowed; I even refrained speaking with my classmates in English after class. I also forbid myself from reading in English other than occasional Facebook or reading the news. I knew it was a really strict regime but I knew that if I didn't do this to myself, my French would never improve.

The next step was a big one for and that is to step out of my box and talk to people. My host mother often told me to go to marchés, cafés, day trips.. anywhere that I had no choice but to talk to strangers and use my French. I'm a complete introvert so I was extremely uncomfortable doing this but I found that the more I do, the more I got used to it and more I am ease with it. The fact that I was alone and had no one to lean on to made it effective as well.

And most importantly she taught me the ways of being a French woman. French women are admired and loved by many but I never understood why. But my host mom is a perfect example. She's a staunch feminist and very strong in her will; but she is also caring and compassionate at the same time. She works hard but she plays hard as well. She always told me to stop studying and enjoy yourself a café or go to the movies. You can't just spend your life in books.  She also taught me the importance of food and nutrition. With only a few fresh ingredients, you can make 3 star restaurant dishes. I noted all her fantastic recipes in my notebook and looking forward to recreating them once I get back.

My head is in a mess so I am just blabbering on but all in all, I have learned so much - not just French but of how to maneuver myself and gain the confidence that I need.  I could not have asked for a more perfect summer and I am going to be "home sick"of Montpellier when I get back!

 ６週間の留学を終えて今はホッとした気持ちと疲れが入り混じっています。
正直かなり辛かったです、この６週間英語はもちろん日本語もほとんど喋らず、毎日４－５時間みっちりある上、そのあと数時間は復習と宿題、家に帰るとホストファミリーと食事とその後はホストマザーと朗読の勉強。ほとんど寝る時間も遊ぶ時間もなくかなり自分を追い込んでしまいました。でもこんなにフランス語にのめりこめるのも一生懸命勉強できるチャンスも今しかないから。来年卒業するまでにはもう少しフランス語が上達していないといけないのでそう思うとかなりの焦りもあったと思います。

そんな中、ホストマザーには本当にお世話になりました。 私のフランス語に習いたい熱意に答えてくれ、毎日のように宿題の手伝いや本の朗読、会話の相手をしてくれました。何よりもフランス人女性の強さと誇り高さを教えてくれました。「りか、勉強ばかりしたいのはわかるけど、時には楽しまないと人生を無駄にしてしまうわよ。時々カフェとかショッピングとかして人生を満喫しないと！」と常にいてました。私が人見知りなのを知り、いつも週末は日帰り旅やイベントに行くように進めていました。最初は強引だなぁ、と思っていましたが、今思ってみればそういう知らない場所に行くことによってフランス語が磨かれたような気がします。

ホストマザーは厳しい人でした。発音や言いかたを間違えると正しく言うまで繰り返されるし、途中で言葉に使えても辞書やホストファザーに頼ることは禁止されていました。それでもいつも人を気遣い、元気づけたくさんのパワーを頂きました。彼女の強さにはいつも圧倒されます。決して泣き言を言わず、常にポジティヴでいる彼女を見ているとなぜフランス人女性はいつも一目置かれているのかわかるような気がします。そんな気持ちを後にモンペリエを離れます。大変だったけれどそれに負けないぐらい思い出深い夏となりました。

The lovely kitchen...where many master pieces were born!

Outdoor table where we always ate

My view when I did yoga at the terrace every morning

Modern art exhibition at an old church

 

My loft room

My study area where I spent countless hours

:)

Classmates

I just realized there aren't much pictures of me and my classmates from the language school... so here they are! As an other typical language school, there's a lot of turnover especially during the summer when students come for few weeks during their vacations to learn. We come from all corners of the world from all ages all backgrounds and all nationalities so it's almost a miracle that we end up in the same classroom at the same time. It's the class discussions, after class talks, and mutual help that enriched my experience and learning.It's been an extremely intense 6 weeks but I feel like I have gotten so much out of it and I'm not even exaggerating. Still a long way to go with my language proficiency but I'm on the right track

After a breakfast exchange with 2 classes

The Japanese group

Afterclass lunch!

Reading

This book is the cutest! A family friend of my host parents let us borrow this book (she's a school teacher) and my host mother and I spent each night reading this book out loud for my French vocabulary and pronunciation skills. We didn't get to finish the book so I went to FNAC and bought a copy of it myself. Every time I read it it's going to bring back many memories... of my host mother telling me to reread the paragraph because my pronunciation sucks! Fun times :)

Portrait 着物を着た女性の肖像画

Saw this picture at Musée de Fabre today and this portrait intrigued me so I snapped a picture of it. I didn't even note the painter or anything so I have no background information but it just struck me that a European woman is wearing a kimono, complete with a fan. It looks like she was properly dressed in it and as many of you know, it ain't easy to dress yourself in one! And she looks quite at easy in it, which as you know again is not the case most times. I'm just thinking to myself, but an interesting way to look at Japanese culture from a European's eyes. That is all

モンペリエのファーブル美術館で見つけた着物を着たヨーロッパ女性の絵。よく見るとちゃんとうちわも持ってるし、着付けもしっかりされてる。どういう背景でこの女性が着物を着ていたのか謎なのだけど印象的なので思わず撮った一枚。ヨーロッパから見たアジアの感覚がおもしろい。

Home Cooked French Food 南フランス家庭料理

French cooking is of course a form of art with all the Michelins and the top chefs. But for me, I rather very much enjoy home cooked French food where the recipe are simple, fresh, and simply delicious. My host mother is the best cook ever and every night I'm filled with joy (and so is my tummy) after a delicious meal. Her cooking is not only French but a melange of different cultures infused in such as Spanish, Italian, Thai, and Greek. And ex-avid traveler, her inspiration for her recipes are truly creative and diverse. Because my host dad is vegetarian, the main dish is usually around vegetables; in which most of them are from her mother's garden, co-workers garden, or at the farmers market. The eggs come from her mother's chicken coop as well. So although the dishes itself are not hard to make, the simplify of the dishes brings out the flavor of the ingredients and it's incredible! I don't want her to think I'm a freak so I don't take pictures of dinner everyday but here are a few.


フランス料理といえばもちろん、高級・繊細・華やかというイメージが強いのですがあたしは断然ミシェランで食べるようなフランス料理のフルコースよりも田舎料理の方が断然好きです。ホストマザーの料理の腕は代々受け継がれてきたもので伝統的な南フランス料理なのですが、もともと旅行好きなホストマザーらしく旅先で刺激を受けた食材や調味料が混ざり、一品一品がユニーク！食材は彼女の実家の畑や同僚の庭でとれたオーガニック野菜がメイン。彼女の実家では鶏も飼っているので卵もお裾分けしてもらっているのでもちろん新鮮。加えて調理方法がシンプルなので食材の味が生かされていていて毎晩なんとも幸せな夕ご飯を過ごしています　笑。これだから2キロも太っちゃたんだよね～　汗

Dinner is outdoors everyday :)

南フランス料理を確実においしくしてくれるのがカマラーグのあら塩。これを一つまみお野菜にかけるとまったく違う味に！

バラの手作りジャム。意外にもローズの独特な匂いなどはなく、花びらの歯ざわりがいい！Homemade Rose jam

Very typical Southern France prune pie!  プルーン（というよりはあんずっぽい？）パイ

Drying out the herbs from the garden

すもものマスカポーネ

プルーンのカステラ♪

Does not look as appetizing but trust me, it's amazing. It's fish soup and you dip bread with aioli on top...!  魚介類のダシが凝縮されたルーにアイオリソースをトッピングしたバゲットを浸して食べます。見た目はいまいちだけど味はピカイチ！

Organic zuccini with spinach and fish, topped with fish sauce

Birthday

I always hated my birthday: no one remembers it because it's right at the end of summer/beginning of school and everyone is rushing back home or getting ready for the school year. Even when I did use to have birthday parties when I was little, I never had that typical American "happy birthday girl" experience. Maybe I've been expecting too much and get disappointed every time. That has become a sort of a trauma and I get a bit depressed around birthday time. I always wanted to disappear into a hole and come back out again 24 hours later. And this is exactly what I wanted to do today.. except that it actually turned out to be one of the best birthdays ever.

As I went into class that morning, everyone started singing to me. I was sleepy headed and came in late on a Monday morning and couldn't really capture what had happened. As it turns out, I had told my teachers that it was going to be my birthday the week before but I had completely forgotten about it. She had remembered this, and told the class to sing for me as I came in. That was so sweet!

Afterwards, I went to have lunch with a classmate since she was leaving for Germany the same day. She took me to her favorite café where they had excellent coffee and great ambiance. Let me note that she's also studies wine so she has very sensitive taste buds so she really know what she's talking about when it comes to taste!


After we parted ways, I ended up having ice cream overlooking the view of the city: one of my favorite spots to go when I want some alone time. Finished the rest of the day by watching a movie and coming home to a fantastic meal by yours truly host mommy and getting funny messages from R. Okay, I'm sure this sounds like a really boring birthday but that's the whole point. Birthdays are not about how much presents you get or hoe many birthday messages you get on Facebook (although I'm so grateful for all the ones that I got!). It's about appreciating what you have acquired in your life up until now and most importantly, to be grateful that you are alive. And so, it was a great day :)

   

R is learning some serious Japanese culture.... Japanese symbol emojis!

Contrarily, I don't get depressed because I'm getting older. I am so much more happier in my 30s and it's getting better each year as I acquire more knowledge and become a little bit more wiser. I still do stupid things now and then but I know my limitations and my aspirations. I know what makes me happy and what doesn't make me happy. I've become more minimalist and simplistic in my life, cutting out complicated things. When you're young, you think getting old is the worst but it's actually not the case at all. As my host mother told me, the best years as a woman is in her 40s and can't wait for that. Plus being Asian and all, the fact that I haven't aged *that much* is of course a great perk as well.

Café Bun 
Address: 5 Rue des Étuves, 34000 Montpellier, France
Phone:+33 6 70 86 43 24
Hours: Open today · 8:00 am – 7:00 pm

Avignon

My last day trip before I leave Montpellier was Avignon. I've heard great things about it and of course, how can you leave South of France without seeing the Pont d'Avignon (It's a famous children's song). Also I've wanted to see the Papal palaces. For those who have forgotten their European history (myself included), the pope resided in Avignon for a period (70 years!) during the 14th century due to unrest and chaos in Rome. And Avignon until then was a very small town so you can imagine the amount of transition it had gone through during those papal years. Of course, the pope moved back to Rome after that and Avignon was once again a quaint little town. That is not to say that it's a sleepy town. It's very rich in art and culture because of the papal influences.

  

Unfortunately,  you are only able to see only a small section of the papal palace so it shouldn't take you more than 2 hours to explore. After that I wandered around Old Town and went to Les Halles which is an indoor marketplace that sells lots of Southern regional foods and fresh produce.

 

 I bought my lunch there and then went to the garden next to the palace where you have a great view of the Pont d'Avignon. I strolled down to the actual bridge itself afterwards (you can also walk on the bridge but it's not worth the money) and did a little bit of shopping on the main road that leads to the station.

If you're able to stay overnight, I heard that there are even more beautiful little villages on the other side of the river and there's lots of restaurants that serve fresh Province-style dishes and traditional style marchés as well. Too bad I had school the next day!  Also I highly recommend that you go during the world famous theater festival in July where there will be plenty of events and plays to catch.